eBay to drop Microsoft's Passport

Seemingly out of the blue, eBay have decided to ditch some Microsoft technology from their site. eBay will drop support for Microsoft's Passport and .NET Alerts by late January, with the Microsoft Passport button that is currently displayed on Sign In pages being replaced with links to a page with more information.

The announcement came with practically no warning; however, in recent months, it had become much more difficult to sign up for alerts through Microsoft's .NET services as the pages to do so were buried on eBay's site.

Users still wishing to receive alerts will have to sign up for eBay's own mobile phone alerts or the eBay Toolbar, which will display .NET-like alerts when the user's auction is about to end, is outbid, or is the winner.

Microsoft was of course disappointed by eBay's decision to can the Passport support and .NET Alerts, but not that or even God himself can seemingly stop them from pushing their .NET framework as the future of business-to-consumer interaction.